I would not do business with Russ Darrow ever. First of all, my dealings started with Russ Darrow when I saw the commercials that guaranteed if you made a if you had $99 down they would finance a new car for you regardless of credit. I guess there is a disclaimer that flashes that states you may have to pay more. I'm not sure how they can guarantee financing with $99 down and then put up a disclaimer that says the opposite. Just your normal deceptive practice from Russ Darrow. It's just another way to get you in the door. So I tried to get approved ahead of time and they made me come in only to try to send me to JDByrider. What they won't tell you is Russ Darrow owns the JDByrider as well as CNAC the finance company that finances for JDByrider. We'll get into CNAC later.

Anyway, being angry at the deceptive ad I left and went home. I then called a different Russ Darrow dealership and asked specifically about the ad. Again they asked me to come in (a 40 mile trip by the way). I told them about my prior experience and told them I wouldn't come down unless they ran my credit and told me whether I could be approved before I came. He took all my information (income, SSN, etc.) and called me back and said they could help me. So I got in my car and drove the hour to get there so I could sit there for over an hour and be told they couldn't help me and I should go to JD Byrider. At that point I was really pissed and decided to go to Byrider because my other car had broken down and I needed a car right away. If I had known they were owned by the same person I would never have went.

Ok, so now for JDByrider... worst place ever!!! First of all, they will sit you down and go over your credit like your some kind of criminal. Bright light and all! Now it's understandable that they need to be careful because they people who buy cars from them but since your gonna rape us over price and financing you may as well be nice to us. They should be buying people movie and a dinner as hard as they are screwing people. Don't even try to compare what they are charging you for the car to blue book price. That just angers them. As soon as I mentioned the blue book price the finance person basically stated that the cars are priced higher than what they are worth because people with bad credit have no other option. In a way, I guess he's right. I needed a car that night and they were my only option. Come to find out they were way overcharging for the car. But what can i say, needed a car right away.

Now let's talk about CNAC... these people are worse than any debt collector you have ever faced. First of all, they set up my payments to be paid on the week before my payday. I called and they agreed to set up the payments to be paid a week later which was when I got paid. This was fine, except that every damn week I would get phone calls asking when I would pay. Not only would they call me but they would call everyone on the list of references that I gave them for when I applied for financing. I guess they weren't intelligent enough to put a note in my account or if there was one they weren't intelligent enough to read it. I finally had to threaten to drive the car to them and leave it before they figured out how to stop harassing me and my friends or family. And if do have any difficulty making a payment they will threaten to ruin your credit and sue you for twice what you owe on the vehicle. And we're not talking months late, we're talking a couple weeks late.

So why do I write this. Because today I spoke to the ignorant people at CNAC again. I have 5 payments left. Sonia, who is an account manager, stated that each time I paid late because of the difference in my payday and the due date it was costing $45 extra every paycheck. I explained that that wasn't possible because my contract specifically stated there were no late fees. She stated that the extra was due to interest. Again I explained thats not possible. She basically stated I paid twice the interest on the principle for that 7 day period. I guess the basic principles of accounting were missing in her training, because I tried to explain to her that although I accrue more interest because the principle hasn't decreased, that does not mean I get charged interest twice on the principal. She then put another manager idiot named Kathy who also was lacking in any basic accounting skills. But it was Kathy who angered me the most when she told me that I would be back to buy another car from them. Which I definitely will not. I did check my balance and I will have to make one extra payment of @ $120. Which is what I expected.

I write this because I have seen many other people who have had the same experience with Russ Darrow, JD Byrider, and CNAC. If one person reads this and decides not to buy a car from them my job is done. Do yourself a favor, if your credit is really bad try going to one of these smaller dealerships that do in house financing. You'll probably get a better car, a better deal, and you'll be treated much better.